Entertainment

8th Theatre Olympics Kicks Off In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The 8th Theatre Olympics, the largest theatre festival in the world, kicked off at Rabindra Mandap here on Saturday. Bhubaneswar is one of the co-hosts of the world’s largest theatre festival, which is being organised in the country for the first time.

The opening ceremony of the festival was attended by Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Culture, Manoharan Panigrahi, ICAS Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Padmalochan Sahoo and eminent theatre personality Ajit Narayan Das.

Galpo Hekim Saheb, an ‘invited’ Bengali play by veteran theatre artiste, playwright and director Manoj Mitra, was the opening play. Other plays staged include invited performances such as “IshqMalangi” (MustaqKak), and “Shri Ram Bijoy” (Dulal Roy) and international plays such as “Mohajoner Nao(The Boat of Infinity)” (Sudip Chakraborthy, Bangladesh), “Matbring” (Yusuf Hassan Arko), and The Suspended Thread (Pino Di Buduo, Italy).

The other plays to be staged during the festival are Aadi Vidrohi Tilka (Sheikh Kairuddin), Behad Nafrat Ke Dino Mein (DaulatVaid), Streer Patra (Seema Biswas), Man Of The Heart (Suman Mukhopadhyaya), Katha Karnabhar (Suman Saha), Hiyar Majhe (Kingsuk Bandyopadhyay), Hojang Taret (Oasis Sougaijam), and Elephant In The Room (Yuki Ellias).

Fourteen plays will be staged at Ravindra Mandap, Bhanja Kala Mandap, and CSIR from February 24 to March 10, 2018, presenting international, regional, and English plays. Over the fortnight, theatre lovers in the city can watch three plays each in invited and international categories, apart from eight plays from different parts of the country.

“Art has been the earliest form of communication and nothing gives an artist more delight than performing in front of an audience that appreciates art, no matter from which part of the world they come. In a way, theatre is a great equaliser and unites people of multiple cultures and traditions under one umbrella. We are extremely proud to bring the world’s largest theatre festival to India,” said Acting Chairman of National School of Drama Society Arjun Deo Charan.

“For the past three years we had the dream to bring Theatre Olympics to India. The dream that we had seen has come true. Since we began to envision and achieve this feat, Dr. Mahesh Sharma and the Ministry of Culture have extended wholehearted support to the idea and have played an instrumental role in making it a reality,” said Director, National School of Drama, Prof Waman Kendre. “Throughout centuries we have seen playwrights like Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht becoming a part of Indian theatre. Despite having our own extraordinary playwrights and theatrical figures, we are still to make similar impact. This is a huge leap in that direction of putting Indian theatre on the world map. We should be proud of our theatre legacy that is more than 2500 years old,” he added.

OB Bureau

Recent Posts

Odisha Similipal’s Tigress Zeenat Enters ‘Safe’ Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve From Purulia

Bhubaneswar: Tigress Zeenat, who travelled nearly 200 km over two weeks from Odisha's Similipal, avoiding…

6 hours ago

Odisha Govt Dissolves Governing Body Of Non-Govt Aided Degree Colleges

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has dissolved the governing bodies or managing committees of all Non-Government…

7 hours ago

EX-SC Judge V Ramasubramanian Appointed NHRC Chief & Justice Bidyut Sarangi As Member

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice V Ramasubramanian…

8 hours ago

CRUT Signs MoU With NTPC & Gridco For Running Hydrogen-Powered Buses In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Marking a significant development in eco-friendly transport in Odisha, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding…

8 hours ago

Kumar Vishwas Slammed For His Veiled ‘Ramayana’ Dig At Sonakshi Sinha

Mumbai: After veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, noted poet Kumar Vishwas left netizens irked with his…

8 hours ago

Massive Fire Engulfs Godown In Bhubaneswar’s Satyanagar; Robot Deployed

Bhubaneswar: A major fire erupted at a pressure cooker company godown at Satyanagar in Bhubaneswar…

8 hours ago

This website uses cookies.